Chasing the tesseract

Chapter 6

Rain hammers down on my jacket as I run from my room towards the library, hugging the book I'm carrying closer. As the door creeks open, I shrug off my jacket, hanging it on a nearby stand before walking around the corner. In the centre of the room sits a long table, surrounded by thousands of books, each one millions of years old. At the far end of the table sits Stephen, his head burried in a book as I walk closer to him.

"Abi." He mumbles without looking up from his book. Walking around the table, I take a seat opposite him, opening my book and turning it to the page I was on.

"Stephen." I reply as he closes his own book and looks up at me. I guess there goes me getting to read in privacy.

"I thought you'd have been long gone by now." I look up from my book, closing it as I draw my eyebrows together.

"What makes you think that?" I say gently as I lean forwards, resting my elbows on the table.

"Well..." He pauses as he shuffles in his seat before leaning backwards. "when you ran off earlier you looked pretty upset so I assumed that you'd have gone home with your brother." I burst out laughing as I lean back in my own chair. Stephen looks at me, his eyebrows furrowing together as his expression changes.

"You can't get rid of me that easily Stephen." I chuckle as I calm down, my head shaking at him as he looks at me calmly.

"I wasn't trying to." he comments, his tone serious as I shuffle in my seat. Opening his book again, he looks down and begins reading. Clearly someone can't take a joke. As I look down at my book, I remember that I still haven't thanked him for earlier.

"Thank you for calling Loki." He looks up, a line forming between his eyebrows as he looks at me. "I really appriciate it." For the first time since I've met him, I smile a genuine smile at him.

"It was the least I could do after being such a douchebag." He looks down as my smile grows. Well, at least he can admit it.

"This doesn't mean that I like you though." I point my finger at him as I look him in the eyes, my eyes narrowing. Rolling his eyes, he shakes his head, looking directly at me.

"And I still don't like you." he agrees.

"Good to see we're both on the same page." I chuckle as I look back down at my book. Stephen hesitates before doing the same. Out of the corner of my eye, I see that he keeps looking up at me, opening his mouth as though he's going to say something before closing it again and looking back down at his book.

After several moments, I close my book, sit up straight and look him in the eyes. "What's up Stephen?"

"Nothing." He looks up at me, closing his book and resting his elbows on the table. "So... You can see the future?"

"She told you?" I blurt out, my eyes widening as I look at Stephen.

"You sound suprised." he chuckles as I look at him apologetically.

"She's never told anyone about it before."I mumble as I look down at the floor. "Other than my family of course."

"Why?" asks Stephen as his eyes narrow.

"If the wrong people find out then they'll hunt me down and use me for my abilities." My eyes blur as tears invade them. Looking up at Stephen, I notice he's studying my face, his blue-green eyes staring at me. As our eyes lock, heat rises through my body and a shiver runs down my spine.

"Don't worry your secret is safe with me." He replies, smiling at me. How have I not noticed how beautiful his eyes are before? Or his smile? "I won't tell anyone." His words bring my focus back to the conversation and I look away as my cheeks flush pink. What in the seven realms was that? Did I really just think that?